Rotaries only good for 60K Miles? proof otherwise!

[RemarkLima]

I think I know why FD\'s suffer more, well more so imports.

The car is running fine in Japan, the owner is having lots of fun then, Oh no! Water seals blow. So do I get a big expensive rebuild?

Or do I patch it up, put some of the £10 gear in that\'ll last 6 months to a year or so, stick it in the auctions overseas and say goodbye.

Then we all go, it\'s an import, fresh off the boat, starts well, drives well, doesn\'t lose any water, so it\'s all gravey baby! Then 6 months later, regardless of milage, she blows again.

Otherwise why would you auction off a car, unless there\'s something wrong with it? (excluding massive demand as a reason for auction).

[RobbieRX-7]

I read somewhere that the japs have a much more stricter mot (shaken test), where older cars get harder and harder to pass this test. I also read that the owners are encouraged to buy newer cars and are given special deals that are hard to refuse.

[RemarkLima]

True, I\'ve heard that as well...

...But I still think it\'s a off load them to the silly westerners and their Visa cards! Maybe i\'m just paranoid tho\'

P.S. Still not managed to get the gf to believe the Rotary Rebuild DVD is a soothing rom-com about memebers of a local rotary club.

[meddy]

Only a tiny percentage of the cars in auction come over here though the vast majority are sold to Japanese. But I do agree it could be one reason for an owner to move a car on.

[leon]

Would the fact that a lot of the cars in the uk as soon as the weather starts to turn are put into a gararge and left standing untill the weather once again turns good? I can\'t see how leaving a car stationary will do it any good from the tips being left in contact with the housings to the coolant possibly starting to go off and all the crud slowy making its way to the lowest point.
 
Just some random babblings of me and may not make any sesnse what so ever!:guinness

using that logic id put an edging bet that people who use the RX7 as a daily driver would get more before it goes pop. obviously subject to previous owner using the car too.

[Tiger_kpt]

I agree with Leon...

I have a UK spec FD which is my daily driver. 50-100 miles a day. Had it for a year doing that mileage. Done 115k miles on chassis and 50-60k on rebuilt engine. Compression are spot on. Sure it eats petrol... but never had any problems with it.

If I was to keep it as a "weekend" car or a "summer" car... I bet I would have alot more problems with it.

I seriously rate using the CORRECT spark plug combination also... 7\'s leading, 9\'s trailing. Not 9\'s all round.

[Tiger_kpt]

Also... it\'s about HOW you drive your car.

They are made to be driven hard. Rotary engines need a "blow out" as such during every drive. WOT all the way up the rev counter. Stops the carbon from building up in an engine that is designed and always tuned to run rich! Driving these cars sensibly (low revs, low throttle) because the owner is worried about a rebuild... is actually one of the worst things you can do to a rotary engine. Shooting yourself in the foot so to speak.

It\'s OK to drive them sensibly, but every run, give the engine a good old clean out. When you first do it... you\'ll see loads of crap come out the exhaust. The more you do it... the cleaner the exhaust emissions (engine) gets. Mine\'s as clean as a whistle.

When buying a rotary... you should ask the question. Has this car been tracked, driven hard, thrashed, etc. If the answer is yes and it runs fine, buy it. If it hasn\'t. Walk away. LOL. The exact OPPOSITE to conventional piston type engines.

Just my 2p worth.

[Tiger_kpt]

9 times out of 10... apex seal damage I bet is down to carbon build up on the rotor housings or incorrect fuelling (detonation/knock) due to running modifications without the correct fuelling/engine management tuning to go with them.

9 times out of 10... water seal damage I bet is down to using the incorrect fluids causing deterioration and corrosion. Uprated "performance" pressure release caps on the coolant system... which are actually rated too high for the standard water seals. (A good example of how a cheap £20 modification can cost you ALOT more in the long run).

9 times out of 10... overheating (and warping of engine components) I bet is down to a crappy AST, still having the exhaust CAT\'s on (especially pre-CAT) and not uprating the inadequate cooling system. Get yourself a better radiator such as a Koyo and a cooling thermostat such as a Sard one.

Anyone disagree?

[leon]

Sounds about right, These cars are getting old in the teeth now so the AST\'s would start to fail they are what in some cases a 17 year old peice of plastic thats under pressure.

The rad would be a nice upgrade i have to admit but im in no rush to do it as the current one is adiquate for my needs. The cause of Det/Seal failure i can imagine is hard to workout.  It makes sense that running a high pressure system would put added strain and an already old and worn system in most cases.

And i totaly agree about driving the car around at low revs, i quite often when i hit the motorway take it all the way up till i hear the little *beep* :3gears-lh. The car seems to sound better for it also.

[RobbieRX-7]

9 times out of 10... apex seal damage I bet is down to carbon build up on the rotor housings or incorrect fuelling (detonation/knock) due to running modifications without the correct fuelling/engine management tuning to go with them.

9 times out of 10... water seal damage I bet is down to using the incorrect fluids causing deterioration and corrosion. Uprated "performance" pressure release caps on the coolant system... which are actually rated too high for the standard water seals. (A good example of how a cheap £20 modification can cost you ALOT more in the long run).

9 times out of 10... overheating (and warping of engine components) I bet is down to a crappy AST, still having the exhaust CAT\'s on (especially pre-CAT) and not uprating the inadequate cooling system. Get yourself a better radiator such as a Koyo and a cooling thermostat such as a Sard one.

Anyone disagree?

I do disagree with some of your posts.  You only really get carbon build up on the rotors, you get small amounts on the housings. IMO, the apex seals blow because of underfueling, over revving and too much abuse. I dont think water seal damage is caused by incorrect coolant though, mainly caused by bad design, old age, lots of heat cycles and not changing the coolant every 2 years. I\'ve noticed the renesis engines have the water seals in the housings instead of the iron plates. Like you say, it\'s not worth upgrading the pressure cap when the mazda cap does the job better, why anyone would want to up the pressure in the coolant system is beyond me. I also think it\'s a waste of time upgrading or removing the thermostat, what for? The engine is designed to operate at a certain temp. 78-90C The stock thermostat brings it upto temp quicker than the sard one. That means the engine is running at optimum temperature for longer which is only good news.

[leon]

Anyone who over revs the engine deliberatly is asking for trouble, thats what the redline is for. Yeah i can see how it happens make a change incorrect fueling treat it as before a lean condition while the engine is under stress.

So its a bit of a fine balllance if you dont give them enough you run the risk of blocking the engine up with carbon wich is a slow process. Or you give it too much and you run this risk of blowing it that way. :Giggle

tbh once mine goes and i have it rebuilt ill be treating it exactly the same as now! (After the runin period ofcourse)

[Martiny]

I do disagree with some of your posts.  You only really get carbon build up on the rotors, you get small amounts on the housings. IMO, the apex seals blow because of underfueling, over revving and too much abuse. I dont think water seal damage is caused by incorrect coolant though, mainly caused by bad design, old age, lots of heat cycles and not changing the coolant every 2 years. I\'ve noticed the renesis engines have the water seals in the housings instead of the iron plates. Like you say, it\'s not worth upgrading the pressure cap when the mazda cap does the job better, why anyone would want to up the pressure in the coolant system is beyond me. I also think it\'s a waste of time upgrading or removing the thermostat, what for? The engine is designed to operate at a certain temp. 78-90C The stock thermostat brings it upto temp quicker than the sard one. That means the engine is running at optimum temperature for longer which is only good news.

I agree with Robbie here, and I dont think we should go WOT to the beeper every time, maybe lets say we just give it a run regularly where the Secondary Turbo comes on.

I think 9/10 aprex seal failures are on badly modified cars.

The coolant failures are from not changing the coolant regularly.

I think the stock radiator , thermostat, and cap are up to the job.